If you plan on doing this project right away you might want to consider
hiring a contractor to do the bulk of the work, I'm sure you understand how
busy you will be unpacking and organizing. Your ideas are great, make sure
you seal the concrete walls and floor with a sealer to prevent moisture
behind your new walls which can be built the same as any 2" x 4" or even
2" x 3" constructed wall and insulate them if you want, the floor only has
to be a couple of inches thick but you should raise the floor joists with
spacers to allow air flow, just make sure you have enough head room to do
this. A sink is a great idea but unless you have a floor drain you will have
to install a pump to get rid of the water. Tile works well and cleans up
nicely, consider using a colored grout so the dirt won't show. As far as the
cabinets, to get what you want they will have to be custom made unless you
are willing to sacrifice certain aspects of the cabinets and even then I
don't know if you will find something that close to meet your needs.
Depending on how cool your basement is and how tolerant your family are you
might want to consider heat in the mudroom. I don't know what part of New
England your from but if your looking for an awesome contractor (located in
Plymouth, MA.) that you can trust and goes the extra mile for you send me an
E-mail through the link (
) and I will get
you in contact with him.
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"FGreen" wrote in message
om...
We're planning to put in a mudroom in our next house. The only
logical place to have the mudroom is actually in the basement, since
the attached garage is in the basement. It's a bit awkward, but the
natural path would be
garage - mudroom in basement - staircase - 1st floor
kitchen/family room.
The basement is poured concrete and unfinished. Between the garage
door from/to the basement and the staircase to the main fllor, there
is a good size area (~12' x ~15' at least) at the corner of the
basement, containable if we put up the walls, just about perfect for
mudroom use. Two sides of the rectangle are existing foundation
walls, and the other two sides of the rectangle can be turned into
walls if needed.
I'd like to 'finish' this portion of the basement, to make it bright
and inviting within the budget (we're working on it). My belief is,
people do what's easy for them, and that's true for a room in the
house, too.
Floor - I'd like to put in some type of flooring, rather than leaving
it concrete. Since it'll see a lot of wear and tear, no
carpet/rug/hardwood floor, probably tiling of some sort. I probably
won't provide drainage, but have a mop and bucket nearby. I thought
about having a simple sink in the area, but not sure about the extent
of plumbing required. (We haven't closed on the house yet, so going a
lot by what I remember.)
Walls - I can probably get by with putting in cabinets and hooks, but
to hide the cold concrete walls, I'd like to put up some type of walls
there. I have no clue what kind of walls go up in basement or
otherwise. I'd like to contain the rea with walls, and have a good
size door in one wall for accessing other parts of the basement.
Cabinets - I'm thinking of having open cabinets for all family members
(2 adults/2kids), plus 1 or 2 extra for frequent visitors
(grandparents). Within each open cabinet, there would have a 3
sections : bottom for shoes/boots, middle/tall section for hooks/small
bags, , and top section would be for hats/small items. The divider
between bottom and middle sections would extend out to serve as a seat
for changing shoes. The top section might have a door to make it look
neat. 4-6 of these cabinets would be next to each other, perhaps all
connected, and will probably have to be custom-made, unless someone
knows a similar product sold somewhere.
First off - aything else that you suggest putting in the mudroom?
This would be the 'foyer' for the family members, since we won't be
using the front door for exit/entrance on a regular basis, and won't
use the actual foyer very much. (Fyi - this house is a colonial in
New England, less than 10 years old.)
Our daily items (jackets/hats/bags/shoes/keys) will remain in the
mudroom, instead of going upstairs to the main (1st) floor, leaving
the coat closet in the 1st floor foyer/hallway available for items
less frequently used.
I'm trying to figure out which of the above I can do myself, to save
money and to eliminate headache of dealing with... (you know...). I'd
done painting, light plumbing, and some other minor work around the
house, including sanding deck railing, etc., but nothing heavy duty
yet. I can be fairly handy if given the right tools and time, but
being an engineer (computer hardware design), I tend to be methodical,
and like make sure I understand/learn as much about it before jumping
in. However, I find that I learn more things as I do (mistakes, that
is).
Should I just go ahead and hire someone to do it?
I knew this is how we'd use the house the minute we looked at it, but
I do envy folks that do not have this basement exit/entrance issue...
Thanks for reading and, in advance, for your suggestion/inputs.